The legacy you leave is the life you lead. And leadership can be a powerful tool for good—whether leading a team or developing your individual potential to achieve your personal best. Let us help you chart a course to a deeper sense of purpose and mission to serve.

Developing, nurturing, and empowering—this is you at your personal best as a coach, consultant, facilitator, or human resource professional. Explore this website to find the tools you need to train and coach aspiring leaders to achieve the extraordinary.

Anyone can learn to be a great leader—young people in high school and youth groups, undergraduates and graduate students, and executives advancing along their personal leadership journey. If you're in the business of educating emerging leaders, we're here with the evidence-based resources to help you build the foundation for transformative leadership education.

OBJECTIVEThe purpose of this study was to examine whether different generations
admire the same leadership characteristics.

METHODOLOGYThe study participants are the Baby Boomer residents of the Spanish Main Yacht Club of Longboat Key, Florida (a condominium whose residents must be 55 years of age and older; N=142, including 87 from the “Silent” generation), and the Millennials of the senior class of Sarasota Military Academy in Sarasota, Florida (N=21)and the juniors and senior students in the Leadership class of Braden River High School in Bradenton, Florida (N=27). All respondents completed the Characteristics of an Admired Leader (Kouzes & Posner, 2002). Fifty-four percent of the respondents were females..

KEY FINDINGSHonest was rated as the most important leadership characteristic by Silents, Boomers, and Millennials. Four of the five top characteristics from the Kouzes-Posner findings are the same for the Silents and Boomers: Honest, Competent, Forward Looking, and Intelligent (including Dependable for Silents and Inspiring for Boomers). In addition to Honest and Inspiring for Millennials, the other top three leader characteristics wee Dependable, Determined, and Broad-Minded. The most prominent differences between the Millennials and the Silents, Boomers, and Kouzes-Posner historical list are Forward Looking (ranked 19th), Competent (ranked 13th) and Dependable (ranked 2nd) and Determined (ranked 4th).

Millennials admire Intelligent, Competent, and Forward Looking at rates significantly lower than Boomers. They favored the following characteristics more than Boomers: Caring, Determined, Supportive, Cooperative, and Ambitious.

Post-hoc analysis between Millennial males and females revealed some significant differences in leadership characteristic preferences. For example, no sub-group rates Honesty higher than Millennial females (96%), and no sub group rates Honesty lower than Millennial males (70%). In addition to this significant difference were also differences females attaching more importance to cooperation and imagination than males, and dramatic less importance to courage (with 0% for females and 30% for males). Boomer males and females are relatively the same, with the exception of females admired Dependability significantly more than males (59% to 16%).

The author concludes:

Educators, leaders of organizations, human resource professionals, training departments, and other researchers may benefit from the findings of this study and may choose to alter curriculums and leadership training programs accordingly, at all levels and with all generations. However, there are cautions to be considered. Kohli (1996) reminds researchers to avoid drawing sweeping conclusions about leadership based on research of one generation, in one location, exposed to similar cultural influences. Raines (2003), Thiederman (2003), and Deal (2007) all warn against stereotyping of individuals based on generational studies. Barnett (2003) advises that people do not fit into tidy categories. Alsop (2008) reminds researchers of the difference between common attributes and those that are universal. At the same time, this study shows that aggregated data, such as the historical Kouzes and Posner (2007), is also problematic when applied to different individuals, generations, and genders (p. 96).

We use cookies to ensure that we provide you with the best user experience. By accessing our website, you consent to our Cookie Policy. Read more about our Cookie Policy. Additional information
can also be found in our Privacy Policy.